Bill in IL House of Rep to ban Aluminum Bats

[MickyMusial]

There is a bill sitting in the IL House of Representatives to ban the use of non wood bats by kids under the age of 13. Like to hear some of your thoughts on this.

[Chris O'Leary]

There is a bill sitting in the IL House of Representatives to ban the use of non wood bats by kids under the age of 13. Like to hear some of your thoughts on this.

The problem isn't aluminum bats.

The problem is HIGH-PERFORMANCE aluminum bats.

[Macker]

The problem is HIGH-PERFORMANCE aluminum bats.

Exactly, a lot of people out there act as if they are in an arms race when it comes to bats.

[Baseball gLove]

What about the composite bats? Aren't those a bigger problem?

[Breeves85]

I agree that something should be done. Are there anymore restrictions that can be applied to the bats? Even if this problem is solved(banning high-performance and composite bats altogether), another BIG problem shows up. In some of the other threads, BMH(from Louisville Slugger) and freddy(zingerbats owner) said that the wood supply won't be there if they force kids to go back to wood. According to them good maple is getting hard to find and ash is beginning to go the way of the dinosaurs due to overuse and an insect problem. I agree that high performance bats are a problem, but I can't jump on the "band the metal" wagon until a good, solid resource is found to replace it. If metal does get band altogether, should the kids just go to composite wood or are there any other materials that could be used? Maybe Bamboo, I'm hearing alot about birch. What are some of the other solutions to the other side of the problem?

[Chris O'Leary]

Unless you're familiar with men's slowpitch, it's hard to know what kids' h.p. bats are all about. From softballfans.com, post #4 (2006)---

When the Ultra came to men's slowpitch, a number of nat'l assoc. threatened to ban composites entirely.

All of the slowpitch leagues I have played in have banned Miken bats.

I would think that baseball leagues could do the same thing.

[TG Coach]

One of the problems is entitlement. This is where a player plays at a certain level due to his age rather than his ability because we wouldn't want to hurt his feelings. It's better we risk hurting his body and then legislate against it.

If the government gets involved eventually kids will be in a suit of armor playing behind screens. They'll be playing with RIF balls until high school.

[MarkL]

get rid of Aluminum....

[APPpitch]

Love the wood bat game, no doubt. Wouldn't mind aluminum bats made to wood bat response specs including the small sweet spot. They can make them "super", tell them to make them "normal" and the game can be fun again.

Having pitchers scared to throw and watching them flinch should be enough. Watch how many kids flinch, cover up, or turn away when a batter swings; why any kid would want to be on the mound in LL is beyond me now. And I love pitching.

-scott

[APPpitch]

...and watching grown men in college swing super aluminum bats is a joke.

-scott

[Padday]

What worries me more is the fact that politicians are wasting their time with such trivial and unimportant (politically speaking) issues. When the world is free from hardship, poverty and despair they can start talking about it. Even then, I don't know why they can't just leave decisions like these to the people who it actually affects, not just some craggy old politician with a chip on his shoulder.

[1chapterahead]

get rid of Aluminum....

Agreed! We work so hard on ours kids swing, trying to mimic the pros, but...

[metropop]

Composite bats stink. Yes, they can take an ordinary hitter and give him a little pop while making Daddy feel good about it, but these bats hide bad habits and actually promote them. This is why you see 90% of decent high school ballplayes with a couple wood sticks in the bag for cage work because the wood isn't as forgiving. The wood bat doesn't talk, but it dang sure lets you know when something isn't right because you feel it everytime.

I wish MLB would subsidize at least D-1 with wood and they could make up the subsidy by not collectively spending millions drafting kids that can't make the transition. The whole reason alluminum gained popularity so rapidly anyway was because of durability and cost, now the composite two piece models are hardly more durable than a store bought wood models but cost 5X more. Go by 5 decent wood bats, learned to hit by breaking a few and you should still have a couple gamers left over.

[MickyMusial]

Ban the high preformance aluminum bats

Technology has really hurt mens pro tennis,it has made golf courses obsolete on the PGA tour(even though no one can beat Tiger)and I think its time to back off the technology in baseball bats.Is it that important to hit rockets to defenceless young pitchers. I do not think going to only wood is the answer but if leagues would get rid of super preformance bats it would be a great start.

[jamesh23]

how much difference do they really make? i've been hitting with wood for 2 monhts and I can drive the ball about 270-300', we have a demarini cf3 double walled composite how far could I hit with it? maybe 320-350?